The thief
by Todoroki Eri
Summary: Durarara! au in which Namie is a professional thief.


The spacious living room was completely dark except for the streetlamps' dim, orange light that came through the enormous windows at the back of the room. The furniture made funny shadows everywhere, and only its silhouettes were visible. This made it the perfect situation to prevent the clearly-too-simple-and-outdated-to-have-proper-night-vision security cameras from recording the human shadow that kneeled in front of the safe's hiding place.

Dressed in tight, black clothing that made her blend with the place's darkness, was a woman. She had her long dark hair up to keep it away from her face, so that she could see better through her night vision goggles, which were stylish and lighter than those of the military, making them look as if taken from a spy movie. She was tampering at the vault with some strange tools, clearly trying to get it open.

The vigilance days had been a nightmare. She had been watching the place two weeks before deciding the best way to enter. In those fifteen days she could corroborate that the vault was surely full to burst; money just didn't stop going in. The owner of the apartment would probably have fooled other thieves, since he lived comfortably but without much luxury, giving the impression that he had inherited the place but didn't earn much himself. But after that time watching him closely, it was clear that man was not only rolling in dough, but also earning it in something most likely illegal. The woman saw people of all sorts going into that apartment, including notable members of the yakuza and even the very urban legend of Ikebukuro, the Black Rider, something that surprised even her, who thought she had seen it all already.

' _Just what do you do for a living?_ ', she had thought one of the first days of vigilance.

She had reached the conclusion that what he did was mostly _talking_. Several people visited in person, and they only talked; he was on the phone (whether it was speaking or texting) about 80% of the time, and she had often seen him typing away at various chats in both his laptop and computer.

After witnessing this for some time, she started to get curious as to what kind of conversations did he hold, so she got herself a microphone and started to listen too.

He seemed to know everything about everyone.

' _Of course_.', she thought short after ' _An information broker_.'

That explained the tremendous amounts of money and the non stop talking. And also, it made the job more interesting, because that safe did probably keep valuable stuff other than money that she would love to get her hands on.

So indeed, the vigilance days had been a nightmare, since what she had seen had gotten her really impatient.

Now the chosen night for doing the job had finally come, and there she was, almost trembling from excitement, wondering what was hiding in there, only seconds away from opening the vault and finally finding out.

The vault's lock clicked, at last, and she stretched her hand to the handle, looking forward to feel the cold metal through her glove. But something was off. She _did_ feel cold, and it was from metal, but she didn't feel it in her hand. She hadn't touched the handle yet.

The coldness was at her neck. It was from the blade of a flick knife. The thief recognized it instantly; she had seen him playing with it several times.

'And here I thought I was stealthy.', she said out loud.

'You are. I almost didn't notice you were here.', the informant replied behind her.

'What gave me away?'

'Now, now, if I answered that you might come again and not make the same mistake. And then you would rob me of my dearest possessions. You understand I can't let that happen, don't you, Yagiri Namie-san?'

A chill ran through her spine. She shouldn't be surprised, but it still worried her.

'I would ask how you know my name, but it would be silly of me to do so, since you are an informant. Right, Orihara Izaya-san?'

She could sense him smile behind her.

'You've done your homework.', he said 'How long did you spend spying me?'

She laughed.

'Are you annoyed that the stalker was stalked?', retorted the thief.

'Actually, no. I think it makes us even.'

She really didn't like the tone he had just used.

'Oh?', she tried to sound calm 'How so?'

'You're a professional thief wanted all over Japan. You've been doing this for quite a long time despite the fact that you are only 25 years old. You've never been caught because the police has never been able to get you on camera nor do they know your name, even though you've worked for a range of criminals that could have let them know somehow, were they not happy as clams with your astounding skills to always get your hands in what you want. You're attributed the theft of several antiquities as well as important amounts of money and of even more important documents. I believe your taste for these last two is the reason why you're targeting me, but since it is said that sometimes you only steal for kicks, I might be wrong...'

Her eyes had been widening in horror more and more as his narration went. A cold sweat started to envelope her.

He squatted down, getting closer to her, and whispered in her ear:

'As you can see, I too did my homework.'

'And you know too much.', she said as she punched the knife away from her and immediately turned to kick him in the ribs, but he had leapt backwards, dodging her leg. He was faster than she had expected.

And he was laughing.

'Are you going to kill me now?', he asked, clearly amused.

'Do you find that funny?'

'Why, yes.'

He was getting on her nerves.

She ran to him and tried to kick him again, this time aiming at his stomach. He leapt again, landing on the couch's armrest with both feet as if it was nothing.

Just what was he?

But she hadn't paused: as soon as he had jumped she had thrown some needles at him. He had just the time to see them coming at his face before turning to dodge them, and Namie took the chance to get closer and throw her fist at him. Thinking that she was trying to punch him, Izaya grasped her wrist, and couldn't hide his surprise when she opened her hand and grabbed the neck of his t-shirt, pulling him towards her. Suddenly his face and hers were so close he could see her eyelashes through the night vision goggles. She then lifted her knee to hit his stomach, and this time managed to make contact, but he had reacted quickly enough to hold most of the hit, grabbing the knee with the other hand. He pulled it upwards, lifting the leg, and hit her behind the ankle of the other leg with his foot, making her lose balance completely. She managed to keep her grasp on his t-shirt and even could kick his shin when falling. He ended up falling on her.

'You're good', he smiled.

'You're not bad yourself.', she replied before headbutting him. She then pushed him away, hitting his chest with both feet. 'But I'm not going to lose to a man in his boxers.'

He laughed again. He seemed to find everything funny, at that annoyed her to no end.

Or maybe he had noticed it annoyed her and was doing it on purpose...

'I still have a hard time believing you will kill me.', he said suddenly 'You've never killed anyone before, not even when you've found yourself in a pinch. And you don't carry any weapons.'

'You know too much', she repeated 'I can't let you live.'

'There's not enough resolve in your tone, Yagiri-san.'

'If you keep annoying me, there'll certainly will be!'

His words, and that way he had to say them, were getting to her. She charged again, jumped forward, and kick him in mid air. She had been too fast this time and he couldn't dodge completely. But she actually wasn't very good at that kind of movement, and thus she hadn't been able to land properly and had ended laying on the floor, not very far from him. He sat up and looked at her. They were both almost breathless.

'You seem to be kicking my ass', he said with a bitter smile.

She stood up -although not without some effort-, and so did he.

'Not really.', she said, smirking 'It's too fine an ass to kick.'

The compliment took him off guard and he seemed unable to react for a couple of seconds. She took the chance and charged once more, but this time she couldn't be as quick as before: she had hurt herself landing in the previous attack, and when she was going to punch him, he had time enough to duck, hold her waist with both arms and push her to the floor. She was going to try and free herself from him, when she felt something cold against her neck for the second time that night; only this time it wasn't the knife. It was too thin and small to be a blade.

'I don't know what kind of poison did you dip these things in, but I bet you wouldn't like to be under its effect.', he remarked.

She then realized it was one of the needles she had thrown at him before.

'How- When did you...!?', she asked, unable to hide the fear in her voice.

'That doesn't matter. It's over.'

It was. She had almost no strength left, and she knew that as soon as she tried to move he would prick her with the needle and its sedative would make her fall asleep, leaving her completely to his disposition.

'You are not a killer either.', she whispered.

He looked straight into her eyes.

'What makes you so sure of that?', the informant wondered out loud.

'I have the feeling you could have killed me at any moment had you actually wanted to. But you didn't. So you must have something in mind for me.'

He smirked.

'It seems that you've gotten to know me quite well during the two weeks that you stalked me.'

'So you knew...'

'I let it happen. You are right, I have something in mind for you. I think having such a good thief at hand would be most useful. So I want you to work for me.' he paused, seeing her frown 'If you did, I wouldn't disclose the information I have on you; it would be inconvenient for me too if I did. This way, we both win.'

The thief looked at the informant. She certainly had underestimated him. Whilst she had watched him, she had only seen him as a young man in search of excitement in his life, with a pretty face and too much time on his hands, and she was sure he didn't know what he was getting into. But she had been wrong. He was skillful and clever. Most likely, the man only inches away from her was the most dangerous man she would ever encounter.

Also, she had to admit that even if she had feared for her life that night, and even if she was now sore and cornered, fighting Orihara Izaya had been the most fun she had had in a long time.

Working for him... would probably be very interesting.

She couldn't help to smile.

'Sounds good.', she finally said.

'Do we have a deal, then?'

'We do.'

He then threw away the needle and gave her a hand to help her up. His eyes widened slightly, and his cheeks even blushed a little.

'Yagiri-san.', he called in a soft voice.

'Hm?'

'Did you really need to grab my ass to get up?'

'Oh, don't you remember what you said before?', she asked, feigning surprise.

Namie got closer to him, still holding his left hand with her right, and grabbing his ass even harder with her left, she whispered in his ear:

'I always get my hands in what I want.'


End file.
